Word: appearance
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Even high caliber films from Saving Private Ryan to Platoon embody an overwhelming sense of the uncanny human ability to destroy. Thus, when the gods of film restoration rediscover a masterpiece like Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, the film's social commentary and reflections on humanity appear dated and escape unnoticed if one is not careful...
...incredibly well-preserved picture greets the viewer, and the opening scenes appear both surreal and promising. The film is set in 1916, before war-weariness had begun to be epidemic among troops and their homelands. The Germans shoot down a French reconnaissance plane that holds two of the movie's main characters, Lieutenant Marechal (Jean Gabin) and Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay). The film almost prompts laughter, for Erich von Stroheim's Captain von Rauffenstein invites the captured parties for a meal before sending them off to a prison camp...
...biggest stretch for the postmodern viewer is Renoir's attempt to convey the necessity of escape from the prison camp. For a jaded moviegoer, life in the camps does not appear quite so horrible. The prisoners are isolated from the trenches and the continuous threat of death, are well fed and have each other's company...
...flygirls are not an entirely new creation: the original script by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice calls for a small group of singer-dancers called "Soul Girls" to appear ever so often in the show. However, it was James A. Carmichael '01, the choreographer for this production of Jesus Christ Superstar, who really gave the "Soul Girls" some soul: he added a dash of 'tude, a handful of sexy moves, and really transformed them into the hot-n-spicy, no-holds-barred flygirls they are today. (That's fly with a "ph," as in "Phlygurlz," their self-proclaimed...
...retreat into unpredictable cults that could spark cataclysmic social unrest. But the nature of Falun Gong - which blends traditional Qi Gong exercise practices with elements of Buddhism and Taoism - makes it harder for the authorities to win the battle for public opinion. "If all the Falun Gong members appear to be doing is exercise and meditation, it may be hard to convince the broader public that they represent a threat," says Dowell. "A harsh government crackdown could make the authorities look irrational in the eyes of the public. By choosing to clamp down rather than ignore Falun Gong, the authorities...